


Awry

by Zarla



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Action, Drama, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-25
Updated: 2007-04-25
Packaged: 2017-10-06 04:29:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarla/pseuds/Zarla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Out on a typical mission, and some things go wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Awry

**Author's Note:**

> Again, trying hard to walk the line between believable emotional reactions to a sensitive situation and melodrama. Hmm.

"Hurry up!"

"I'm trying! This isn't something you can just will to go faster, you know!"

Snake pressed his back against the door as he felt the first kick hit.

"We don't have a lot of time!" he gritted out between clenched teeth.

"You think I don't know that?" Otacon stared intently at the computer screen, then his fingers flew across the keyboard for a few seconds. "It's almost done! Can't you distract them?"

"What do you think I'm doing?!" Snake snapped and he felt another kick hit. "Hurry up!"

Otacon made a frustrated noise. "I'm trying- I didn't think we'd have to do this so quickly-"

"You should have! You can't be unprepared!" Speaking of which, he was going to have to change clips soon by his mental count. Snake was glad that he'd taken as much ammo with him as he did, even though Otacon said he'd never need that much. Not a surprise since Otacon never thought of this kind of situation. Snake told him to think worst scenario and Otacon gave him run-throughs where he dropped his computer during their escape. Useless!

How many were out there? He could probably clear a path if he had the element of surprise and some good cover. The desk would provide some, the computer too when Otacon was done with it. As long as he kept his head when the door opened, he should be able to get out of here to a place that _wasn't_ a dead-end and God, this was a mess.

"Can you reprogram the door locks?"

"What?" Otacon gave him a disbelieving look, his voice short. "Now?"

"No, when we bust out of here!" Snake tried to guess at how many soldiers would be waiting for them. What kind of cover had he seen in the hallway? There was that crate, one or two of them would probably hide behind that if they had any sense. "Can you fix the locks so they can't follow us?"

"Um, probably." Otacon's eyes flicked back to the computer, reading quickly. "I'll just need a node and some time, if you can buy some. Do you have a plan?"

"I've got something close." Snake took a deep breath. "I want you to take cover when I open the door. Keep your head down and don't move unless I tell you to, got it?"

"I got it, I got it." Otacon sounded distracted, and again his fingers tapped at the keyboard for a few seconds. "All right, I think it's done." A slight whir, and Otacon proudly held up a disk. "All the info should be right here."

"Great." Snake didn't bother to hide the irritation in his voice. "Get down, we're getting out of here."

Otacon obediently ducked behind the desk, his hands over his head and Snake turned and slammed his hand on the panel for the door, opening it just before a kick landed. The soldier fell forward, shocked and unprepared. It was only an advantage of a few moments, but it was still an advantage and one worth exploiting. In seconds it was over, one down and the air filled with echoing gunshots, a solid wall of sound. Something grazed his thigh, drew blood he could tell, and another shot nicked his shoulder. Not serious enough to slow him down too much, that was good. It hurt, of course, but he was used to pain and he knew when to block it out when something more important was happening. Dodge, duck, wait, move, shoot, duck, wait.

Otacon stayed where he was, on the floor with his hands over his head as directed. Snake had run him through this kind of scenario several times before and while this was the first time they'd actually encountered it, Otacon was performing admirably. All he had to do was listen and not do anything stupid and they'd be fine. Otacon was doing just that now, although Snake still wasn't sure what possessed him to stop doing so before. If his stealth camo malfunctioned, he was supposed to _hide_ somewhere, not keep hacking, but Otacon just insisted that he could get it done without getting seen anyway and now here they were, stuck in the middle of a full alert and Snake was definitely going to let Otacon have it when they got out of this. He couldn't even put into words how frustrated he was, not to mention the uniform he was wearing now felt itchy and hot and uncomfortable, and the fabric was sticking to where he was bleeding in that annoying way it always did.

There, a momentary lull. A quick peek and the hallway was clear. Snake grabbed Otacon by the collar and pulled him up.

"Now!"

Otacon made something of a startled gasp in response, probably more because he was suddenly hauled right off his feet for a few seconds than anything else, then he made a vague noise that Snake assumed was affirmative.

Snake kept his hold on Otacon's coat until they reached the hallway, then let him go more as an afterthought than anything else. After rubbing at the back of his neck for a few seconds, Otacon moved to stand by his side.

Shivering and breathing hard... Snake watched him from the corner of his eye, tried to gauge how shaken he was by what was happening.

"Where to now?" The determination in Otacon's voice was enough to reassure Snake that he wouldn't let him down.

"Follow my lead. Stay right behind me, try and keep me between you and them. Get behind any cover you can find if you hear anything." Snake spoke quickly while he moved down the hallway, Otacon beside him. They passed a branching corridor, but that was probably where the reinforcements would come from. Better to keep heading down their current path. "Put as much distance between you and the gunfire as possible."

"Right." Otacon nodded and Snake could see the doorway at the end of the hall that led to the junction between the wings of the building. Opened into a small room that had a node near the door, if he remembered right. He could block the door until Otacon got the locks straight-

"There. Go!"

At the jerk of Snake's head Otacon headed for the doorway indicated. Snake kept an eye on the hallway behind them. They didn't have any time, but they wouldn't need much.

"Did you keep your security card?" Otacon called over his shoulder.

"I lost it in the shuffle. You got yours?" Snake kept his gun trained on the corner.

"Yeah, I've got it. It'd be easier to figure out the system if I had two cards to compare but..." There, Otacon reached it. Snake kept his gun pointed and his eyes focused, steadily moving backwards until he was close enough to dart inside when he had to. He heard Otacon curse under his breath and the beep of the buttons of the door panel. "Just like I thought, they've blocked my number by now. Have to find a work-around-"

"Just open it!" There, the tip of a gun. Seconds later a soldier and Snake fired. A pop and a splash of blood later, and their brief rest was over.

"I'm working on it!"

Another. Snake squeezed the trigger again, another soldier down. More now, too many to pick off one by one, and gunshots again filled the air. Amid the pings and echoes and bangs, he heard the panel beep.

"There, got it! Come on, Snake!"

He heard the door slide open behind him but couldn't afford to look away. A bullet skimmed his left side and he grunted. That was going to leave a mark, but it didn't feel like it hit any organs. Mostly muscle and skin probably, although a visit to the hospital would be in order after this was over. Otacon was footing the bill if he had anything to do with it.

"Snake, come on!"

He fired again, another soldier down and turned his head to look back at Otacon for a brief second, to confirm his location and where he'd have to move to be able to shut the door in as short a time as possible. The gunshot echoed around him in the metal hallways, repeating and the front of Otacon's lab coat suddenly blossomed scarlet.

He didn't have the time to think about it before he moved like his body had been programmed for years to do, automatically moved out of danger and the door shut as more bullets slammed into it.

It took only seconds for it to be over, and when he had the chance to think again he could hear Otacon screaming.

He'd thought for a minute that he'd imagined it, some vague paranoia making itself known in a stressful situation but he hadn't, it was real and Otacon was kneeling on the floor, leaning forward with his hands pressed to his chest and he was still screaming, although Snake couldn't tell if it was from shock or from pain.

Snake had a few seconds to make a decision and he turned to the door panel and fired, sending sparks flying and causing the lights to dim for a few moments. He didn't know if that would disable the door or not, but he was banking on the fact that it would and that would buy them some time.

He knelt in front of Otacon, grabbed his shoulders and tried to make eye contact.

"Otacon, listen to me! Look at me!"

The sound finally died, faded into a kind of strangled, halfhearted cry, and he looked up at Snake.

"You've been shot, Otacon." Saying it suddenly made it seem so much more real, connected, but Snake shoved that away because you didn't have the time with a gunshot wound like this, you had to act and you had to act fast. "Do you understand? Move your hands, I have to get a look at it."

Otacon looked up at him, tears leaking from his eyes and he nodded, slowly moving hands now stained bright red. The front of his lab coat and his shirt were rapidly becoming soaked with blood. He was breathing fast and shallow, his face pale and he was shaking, hard. Snake pushed him back a little so he could get a clear look at where the bullet had entered, lifted his shirt to see that the source of the blood could only be a hole in his chest through his lung.

Otacon had his mouth open, breathing hard and the saliva trickling from the corners of his mouth was tinging pink.

"Is it bad?"

Snake stared back into his frightened, pleading eyes, his mind automatically listing off how long it took the average person to die from a pierced lung, how much blood would have to be lost before shock set in, before the body shut down completely and you could move on to new enemies. His mind fed him statistics but it didn't match with what he was looking at or how he felt or what he was supposed to do.

Otacon had minutes, probably, before the blood built in the space between his ribs and his lungs, the pressure causing his lung to collapse and soon after stop his heart from beating. Minutes and this was supposed to be routine, there weren't supposed to be any kind of complications, this was something that they'd done a dozen times before without so much as a hitch and now one lucky shot had ended it, ended everything.

Otacon coughed, blood speckling the floor and now he sobbed for breath, still trying gamely to focus. The blood loss would soon start making him anxious and confused, his skin would become cold and clammy, his pulse thready and he wouldn't be able to breathe-

"What do you need me to do?" He wheezed. "God, Snake, it hurts- you didn't tell me...getting shot hurt this much, ha ha..."

"Stop..." He just...didn't know...what was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to do? This wasn't supposed to happen, not to Otacon, not to someone that he actually cared about, he wasn't supposed to calculate how long it would take for his partner to die from a gunshot wound to the chest, this wasn't supposed to happen-

"What?" Otacon's breathing was shallow and fast. "...What?"

"Otacon..."

"What?" Otacon blinked, his eyes growing wide with panic and he weakly raised his hands to rest them on Snake's shoulders. "What? Is it bad? Is it...really bad?"

Snake knew what to say but he couldn't say it, not to him.

He could see the realization in Otacon's eyes, the horror and Otacon tightened his grip on his shoulders.

"I'm..." Otacon looked down for a few seconds before looking back at Snake. "No, I'm not...this can't...this can't be, you can....you can fix it, do something, this can't..."

"There's nothing I can do."

"No..." Otacon shut his eyes tight, his mouth open as he tried to cry out but he couldn't muster the lung power to do it. "No, no, I don't want to...not now, I..."

"Otacon..."

"Snake!" Otacon looked at him, his eyes wild and desperate. "Snake, I can't die, I can't!"

"Your lung-"

"I can't die..." His hands slid down his chest and Otacon pressed his forehead to Snake's shoulder. "I can't die, what will you do without me?"

Snake shut his eyes, the words penetrating through everything, repeating in his mind and he wrapped his arms around Otacon and held him as tightly as he could. Actions spoke louder than words, and he found what he felt amid the automatic, the desensitization to the battlefield and the wounded. When Grey Fox died he felt that connection, that sorrow and regret and anger and denial and _loss_ and now it was happening again, feeling and someone was slipping away right in front of his fingers and it wasn't _someone_, it was Otacon. _Otacon_, this wasn't supposed to happen to him, this was the one way he _wasn't_ supposed to die, he was supposed to protect him, he was supposed to _protect him_

Otacon's body quivered in his arms, weakly trying to return Snake's gesture but he couldn't find the strength to keep his arms up.

He was supposed to protect him and he barely had the chance to say anything, to think about anything, to tell him anything, and he'd been so angry at him for nothing now, it was all for nothing.

Snake could feel Otacon's heartbeat, weak and fast, and he kept his eyes shut. "I was supposed to protect you."

"You tried...how much longer?"

"...Not much..."

"It hurts...oh God, it hurts, Snake, it hurts it won't stop..."

Snake didn't know how to respond to that, so he just held on. It took Otacon a few moments to work up the ability to speak again.

"Snake...I want you to know..."

"What?"

Otacon coughed, wet and painful and he shuddered.

"What is it?"

"The...the disk...it's in my right pocket..." Otacon's voice was nearly gone. "Mei Ling...she'll know what to do with it...make sure it gets to her..."

"Otacon..."

"Might not have the chance to say this again..." Otacon took a breath that gurgled a little in his throat. "Might as well...won't have time...think I..." His muscles were weakening, Snake could feel the tension slowly leaving as Otacon's body started shutting down. "Think I might've loved you..."

Snake opened his eyes. "Loved me?"

"Meant to tell you..."

God, that made this _worse_.

"What about you?"

Snake blinked. "What?"

"You're so...stupid..." Otacon shifted a little, and Snake let him go, moved him enough so he could look at him. Still shaking and he could see on Otacon's face the effort it took to push down the pain so he could speak. "Love you...love me back?"

Snake was simply at a loss for words, and Otacon's eyes were closing.

"Doesn't matter..." Otacon mumbled. "All gone now..."

"I..." His mind was still counting down and he knew he had very little time. Snake struggled to get his mouth to work, to find a response. "I might've-...I think I did." God, no. _No._ This wasn't happening.

Otacon smiled weakly, his eyes still shut tight in an effort to keep down the pain.

"That's nice...where am I, Dave...?"

No no no, this wasn't happening, this wasn't happening to him again, this wasn't happening

"Where am I...?"

He drew Otacon in close to him again, resting his head on his shoulder. Otacon tried to resist but his movements were feeble and weak. "Where am I...what's...Dave, what...hurts..."

"I think I did..." As much as he could, as much as he was able and the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. "I think I do. Why didn't you tell me?"

"What..."

Felt his heartbeat fast and irregular, his breath across his neck.

"Where...? What's happening? Where am I?!" As panicked as his weak voice could manage.

"You're here, I got you."

"Can't see...can't breathe, drowning, don't want...don't want to... don't I can't breathe I-I can't I can't breathe-!"

"I got you, I've got you." It was the only thing that was true. He couldn't say it was okay, he couldn't reassure him that things would be all right, that he could protect him because that was a lie, God, how could this happen? How did this happen?

Otacon made some short, frightened sounds, breathy yelps of fear as he again tried to break free, his hands moving clumsily but Snake kept his grip tight, refused to let him go. Otacon took a few more shallow breaths, then made a weak whimper through his last, the last resistance before the end.

And just like that, it was all over.


End file.
